should be sent to fight shevkal (shamkhal), shevkal lives in the mountains, the road to him is narrow".Georgian ambassador Cyril in 1603 reported in Moscow that "shevkal and his children live more in Gazi-Kumuk in the mountains, because that place is strong". By the end of the 16th through the beginning of the 17th centuries Shamkhalat, which was a major political entity in Caucasus, disintegrated into separate Kumyk fiefdoms. Defeating Russians In 1594 a Khvorostinin's campaign into Dagestan took place, but his troops retreated. In 1604 a Buturlin's campaign into Dagestan took place. In 1605 Russian army that occupied lowlands of Kumykia (about 8,000 men) was surrounded and routed in the Battle of Karaman by the army of a Northern Kumyk prince Soltan-Mut of Endirey, some 20 kilometres north of Kumyk settlement of Anji, where today's Makhachkala is located. At the end of the 1640s, Shamkhal Surkhay III invited a smaller part of Nogai Horde, headed by Choban-Murza Ishterek, who did not want to obey the tsarist governors, to live in Shamkhalate. For his return to Russian borders, tsarist troops were sent to Kumykia with their Kabardian allies and Cossacks. In 1651 the Battle of Germenchik took place, where joint Kumyk-Nogai army secured a victory. In 1651, the Shamkhal wrote to the Astrakhan governors about a custom that “we, Kumyks, have and cherish our konaks [quests and friends] since the times of our fathers”, thus explaining their alliance with the Nogais. 18th century, campaigns of Peter I and vassalage from Russia During the Persian campaign of Peter I, Schamkhalate started as an ally of Russia, but in 1725, shamkhal Adil-Girey II, incited by the Ottoman Empire, attacked the Russian fortress of the Holy Cross, was defeated, captured and sent into exile to the north of Russia. Despite fierce resistance, described as such by Russian companions of Peter I, particularly from the Endirey and Utamysh principalities, Shamkhalat was defeated and on paper abolished. In 1734, after the Russian-Persian treaty, it was restored. As a result of feudal civil strife and campaigns of Russian troops against Shamkhalat, at the beginning of the 18th century, only a small possession along the Caspian Sea (with a total area of up to 3 thousand km²) was all that remained from the state. 19th century, Caucasian War During the Caucasian War, at least three uprisings broke out in Shamkhalate — in 1823, 1831 and 1843. Population